Drawing to a Close

Next year I may be blogging the conference from an internet tablet in Phoenix, AZ. I'll have to see on that. In the meantime, things are drawing to a close here. I've met lots of fascinating folks and am excited to take some of what I've learned here home with me. Like the wedding at Cana, the organizers saved the best for last. The final panel discussion featuring one Orthodox, one Reformed and one Catholic presenter offered amazing insights into their conception of both the local and the global/universal church. The room for dialogue was excellent and I feel better informed about each. Tonight we have a final Eucharist at the Lutheran Center Chapel and then tomorrow I'll be headed home after a plenary with some national church staff. I've made a number of good contacts both for returning to New England and for future ecumenical work around the U.S. Once I get the CD's of some of the talks, I'll be posting selections from the conference here.

Big Church

"Big Church", as my wife and I sometimes refer to life and expressions beyond the congregation, has involved a good deal of my time this past weekend and this entire week. It began on Saturday with a trip to the Mission Area Conference in Sturbridge, MA and continues with the National Workshop on Christian Unity in Chicago, IL. I am always humbled and deeply gratified when I participate in such events, precisely because they are reminders that I am part of something much bigger than one parish, and in the case of NWCU, much bigger than just the Lutheran branch of Christianity.

Mission Area Conference involved a daylong get together with members and leaders of churches from central and western Massachusetts. We heard a presentation by our Bishop, had workshops on topics of concern and had a great networking lunch where I met a variety of folks involved in Christian Education.

NWCU involves a concurrent education program and the meetings of various ecumenical networks. So I've been attending both the mixed programming and the meeting of LERN (Lutheran Ecumenical Resource Network). I'll post more on both later.

In the meantime, I just wanted to share the bookstore haul. (Lord save me from conference bookstores!)
William G. Rusch "Justification and the Future of the Ecumenical Movement"
David Batstone "Not for $ale" the official book of the Amazing Change Campaign
Julia K. Dinsmore "My Name is Child of God... Not 'Those People'"
Siku "The Manga Bible", a Japanese style graphic representation of Genesis through Revelation.

So Many Surprises

When you begin the week with a story as familiar and as startling as the road to Emmaus, it's hard not to start seeing amazing surprises everywhere. Whether it's the feeling that the campus ministry work that I've been inching is on the precipice of real movement, or the many and varied couples I'm preparing for marriage, or even the delight of reconnecting with an old friend from years ago, the days feel full of potential.

April will be over in the blink of an eye, especially with the conference and the youth mission trip. Each of these opportunities will spur new ministry and will solidify some of the core elements of my own call. I feel very energized about all of the possibilities that lie ahead and am excited to roll up my sleeves and engage this work.

This Saturday I'll be at the Mission Area Conference for Central and Western Massachusetts. I'm hoping to learn about what's going on in terms of community ministry around the area. This ought to be a good time for doing some networking as well. My hope is that I'll come across some blogworthy items to report both there and from the National Workshop on Christian Unity that is coming up.

It must be Spring

Confirmation students beg to have class outside, even though it's not exactly warm enough. Discussions of the calendar revolve around weddings, wedding rehearsals and the annual New England Synod Assembly, birds are singing around my house, sometimes it's even still light when my office hours are finished. It must be Spring.

It was a little disorienting this past Friday to do a little shopping in the cold and damp weather, feeling as though Winter still clung to us, when I saw the Easter decorations cast on to the clearance shelf. However, I am deeply grateful to be in the Easter season. With the recent challenges I've experienced in campus ministry, in addition to coordinating the final stages of our upcoming youth trips, and generally working a few too many hours, I am glad to be in the fifty days of Resurrection. When I take time to pause and reflect I am awed by God's presence in these struggles, carefully and wonderfully opening paths to life when it appeared that all routes where cut off.

I more deeply appreciate Dietrich Bonhoeffer getting "stuck" on Job in his bible study in prison, and I feel as though I ought to dwell there for awhile as well. Job contends mightily with God, but he never curses or rejects God's justice.